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EU food and feed trade groups call for certainty on protein imports

The EU grain trade, oilseeds trade and feed trade groups, COCERAL, FEDIOL and FEFAC have called on the European Commission to safeguard vital imports of soybeans, maize and various protein-rich products derived thereof from the key exporting regions to the EU.

By unlocking urgently and by July 2014 the EU authorization of 8 GM products for import, food and feed processing the college of Commissioners will provide the necessary legal certainty to food and feed business operators.

The EU depends for 75% of its needs for protein-rich ingredients for feeding purpose on the global world markets. Some of these GM products, maize, soy and rapeseed are already commercialized abroad, others will be harvested and made available in the key exporting regions to the EU as from autumn 2014.

Further delay s in the EU authorization process may , therefore, lead to significant shortage and trade disruptions due to unavoidable presence of these GM events in our supplies of both GM and non - GM material.

This would trigger uncertainty on import flows , supply chain disruptions and price hike s for basic food products and major feed ingredients as well as undermine the competitiveness of the EU food, feed and livestock sectors, if a decision is not taken in July 2014 . The 8 GM products have been deemed safe by the European Food Safety Authority (ESFA) and have reached the final stage of the risk management process. The decisions for the related EU import authorizations lay in the hands of the EU Commission : some of them are awaited since the end of 2013.